Reading event features film starring Port student

The Rotary Interact Club of Port Jervis, a group of local high school students, recently hosted a pajama story time at the Port Jervis Free Library.

Jessica Cohen

The Rotary Interact Club of Port Jervis, a group of local high school students, recently hosted a pajama story time at the Port Jervis Free Library.

Dressing for the occasion, both audience and presenters arrived in pajamas. Club members read aloud, and a short children's film made by a former Port Jervis High School student was shown.

The star of the film was one of the readers.

The purpose of the Interact Club, which is an affiliate of the Rotary Club, is to provide a range of community services. Elaine Tedesco, who advises the club, said the library event was the result of a club brainstorm.

"We had been focused on in-school events, and we needed to do an out-of-school event," she said. "I said, 'I'm the adviser; you're the club. You decide.' They said, 'Let's make it a pajama story time with milk and cookies.' I asked about showing the movie."

The eight-minute film, "Little Moon Lost," was directed and produced by Port Jervis High School graduate Jennifer Treuting, who now works for Nickelodeon. The movie has been selected for film festivals and has won awards in the U.S. and beyond. It was made around Cuddebackville, where Treuting grew up, and stars Tedesco's son Marc.

The story follows a boy who believes he has found the moon, which seems to have fallen out of the sky. He tries to return it to the sky using available resources — a tree, a swing set, whatever he imagines might work.

"Marc's friends hadn't seen it," Tedesco said. "He was worried. It took a few weeks to get used to the idea of showing it. But I was superproud of my son and former student."

In high school, Treuting had taken private art classes with Tedesco, and Tedesco sees the perfectionism she noticed then in Treuting's filmmaking.

"She had to keep doing it until she got it the way she wanted it," she said. "For Marc, that meant doing scenes over and over."

The film was completed in 2012. At the end of April, it will appear at the San Francisco Bay Area International Children's Film Festival.

Tedesco arranged the reading event with Rhonda Somarelli, children's librarian, who prepared a stack of books for club members to read aloud. The event was advertised in Port Jervis elementary schools, and eventually 30 children signed up.

Marc Tedesco chose to read "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late," about a pigeon who rebels against bedtime.

"He falls asleep ranting about it," he said.

Jacob Schott read "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly," because he read it when he was little. So what was the moral of the story?

"Never swallow a horse," he said. "The lady swallows a horse and dies in the end."

Nobue Tashiro, 18, said she chose "Sleep Like a Tiger" because she liked the illustrations.

"We're all nervous about reading," said Elaine Tedesco, before the reading. "They're giddy, and I'm nervous, too."

Nevertheless, the reading was smooth, and most of the audience stayed awake.

The club's projects have also included bell ringing for the Salvation Army, collecting donations for food pantries, and bake sales to raise money for Doctors Without Borders and "shelter boxes," containing tents, filtration systems, axes, string and other survival basics, to send to Haiti.

Alex Belsten, 15, who read "Maybe a Bear Ate It," said he joined the Rotary Interact Club because his friends are in the club. He particularly liked the event that night.

"It's different from bake sales, and I like having all the kids and everyone together."